When we began our research for the making of The Echo of Pain of the Many, we naturally sought archive film material that was shot during the period of the internal armed conflict. In the early years, this would have meant 16mm film, and that was an especially expensive medium for independent filmmakers. It was only from the early 1980's that early forms of video became more available and began to be used by 'the independent sector'.

La premier de El Eco del Dolor de Mucha Gente, 09 de diciembre 2011, Paraninfo de la Universidad de San Carlos, Ciudad de Guatemala .Premiere of The Echo of Pain of the Many, Dec. 9, 2011, at the University of San Carlos, Guatemala City

However, this didn't make it any easier for progressive Guatemalan filmmakers and activists to be seen to be filming, as they would become an immediate target of the Guatemalan state. The Guatemalan military and intelligence services had been well-instructed (through training by the CIA and others) in the need to limit the 'views' of the Opposition 'getting out and being seen.'

What we found, as well, was that those 'interests' who had previously been in charge of Guatemalan TV over this period, were still politically aligned with forces on the Right. Whilst we understood they still held valuable documentary footage, efforts to acquire material from them, even footage that may have been heavily censored, was impossible.

So we are grateful of the efforts of filmmakers around the world - both the independents and the broadcast TV companies - who did record film and video. That material continues to be found in a new wealth of productions about Guatemala, and the issues we have raised in The Echo.

"COMUNICARTE is Guatemala's foremost and most longstanding independent film and video production team which, since its foundation, has been committed to working at both the national and local levels, dedicated to document, publish and disseminate / disclose what is happening in Guatemala's cultural life, both politically and socially. We fight for respect for human rights and indigenous peoples. We are members of the Latin American Cinema and Communication Coordinator of Indigenous Peoples CLACPI." CLACPI →

Comunicarte have built a video production archive of over 90 titles that provide a unique history of struggles for dignity and the affirmation of human rights in Guatemala. We are indebted to them for providing to us archive material that was essential to illustrating the early part of the history as told in The Echo of Pain of the Many.

Boris Hernandez and Arturo Albizures, founders of COMUNICARTE . Despite threats and unfavorable conditions for video production in Guatemala ( during the armed conflict and currently ) Comunicarte continue to work for human rights, the struggle for land, the return of refugees , student struggles and many other social issues .

We list below a short selection of films and videos that are not immediately available or listed in international libraries, and that may be of interest to activists, researchers or students of contemporary Guatemalan history and politics:

El Archivo Histórico de la Policía Nacional (1.06) The Historical Archive of National Police of Guatemala

A chance investigation in Guatemala City in 2005 led to the discovery of millions of administrative police documents dating from 1882 to 1996. The Guatemalan government and police had long denied their existence, particularly during truth commission investigations by both the United Nations and the Catholic Church in the 1990s, during the final years of the country's nearly four decades of armed civil conflict.

The University of Texas at Austin in collaboration with the Historical Archive of the National Police of Guatemala, or the Archivo Histórico de la Policía Nacional (AHPN), recently unveiled a university-hosted digital archive that will serve as an online digital repository for millions of documents from the archive. Uploaded on Feb 3, 2012

Documentary "The healing power of a piece of paper", by Fora Quadre and Contrast, focuses on the work and importance of the documents in the Historical Archive of the National Police of Guatemala. Part documentary, "Guatemala. Recovering Memory" from the series "After the peace."

"The US propaganda machine quickly labeled Jacobo Arbenz as a communist, stigmatizing him as an enemy to the American way of life.

Out of fear that Arbenz’ reforms would not only energize the Guatemalan economy and empower the natives, but also that his proactive resistance to American economic infiltration would spread to neighboring nations (The Domino Theory), the US government successfully employed a CIA‐trained rebel force to push Arbenz out of power."